but with more tax money. that's what one economist called socialist austerity. the private sector gets weaker, poorer, has fewer jobs, but we prop up government with higher taxes. i think that's a bad deal for america. >> right. let's talk about speaker boehner, though, because he's obviously in your position, the one that you occupied, and there is a sense that he and barack obama just don't have much of a relationship. certainly nowhere near as warm and constructive as the one you ended up having with president clinton. >> first of all, we earned -- you have to ask president clinton this but i think it's a fair thing to say. we earned president clinton's respect in part by closing the government twice and being in a very rough and tumble fight. he came to believe we were serious. we were the first republican congress in 40 years but more importantly, we were the first re-elected republican house since 1928. that happened i think because we showed we actually were serious people willing to take the heat, wil